She shook her head.
"Sometimes Robin has a big mouth," she said, looking away from him. "He didn't need to tell you. It's not happening."
At his word about convincing her family, she kicked the tree in frustration.
"Or what, Jube?" she said, her words harsh as she put her back to him. "You know my mother. She wants me to be like Swallow and Swan. She doesn't want to see that I'm nothing like them. She thinks me mar...."
She choked on the words.
"She thinks it'll make me like everyone else."
She stared at her feet. She couldn't even begin to explain how upset the conversation had made her. Not only had her mother got it into her head that she should marry, but she thought.....
[i]"You'll be just like your sisters, happy with little children. You can devote your life to them. You can stop acting out. I see I've not given you enough attention",[/i] she'd said this in front of everyone. [i]"I see that now. That was why you chose to hang around with that [u][b]boy[/b][/u]. You wanted me to take notice. Well I am now and I promise I have a lovely boy in mind who will make you very happy and you won't need to see that [u][b]boy[/b][/u][/i]
She had kept saying "boy" with such an unpleasant tone. She couldn't bare it. Jube had been the only person who ever listened to her. He was her friend and her mother spoke like he was some childhood toy that she could put away.
"Or what?" she repeated, this time more quietly, her eyes on her shoes. "If I stay, she'll make me marry him. My father won't get involved, it's [i]woman's[/i] stuff. He doesn't care about what I want."